Chapter 14
The sunlight outside quickly faded behind darkened tropical clouds, as their fluffy blackness collected into one single force of pure fury. The treetops on the surrounding hillsides danced and groaned under the wind that was collecting itself in the narrow valley.
Jacob sat alone. He watched slowly as the wind carried leaves and debris all around the front lawn of the old farm house. The light of what were once a beautiful sunny day fading quickly behind yet another sudden storm. The weather, in turn, always seemed to match his mood. If something terrible had happened to him, to ruin his good mood and timid nature, then the resounding force of a storm would appear on the horizon.
Jacob’s mind danced on that possibility and odd coincidence. He was letting his mind wonder on the infinite possibilities and for the first time, he tried to come up with some logical explanation for everything that had happened.
He played on the many thoughts and ideas that sprang upon him after his trip into the past. He remained confused and with more questions than he had answers, though the strangest part was that he had the feeling he was close to understanding everything. It was a quick and brief passing thought, like it was on the edge of his sub-conscious but a part of him kept it at bay.
There were other things changing with in him. Things he could not place a finger on, but that he felt with each passing minute. He could let his mind wonder and separate into a thousand thoughts, but his body was always finite and steadfast. It was strange. He almost felt as though he could completely leave his body in one place, and travel along without it.
Ever since he had seen the grotesque nature of what he had done, or the man who looked like him had done, it made him wish he could do just that. He no longer wanted to associate his mind with this sick and twisted façade of a shell. It was against everything he stood for and he knew it was not the person he was inside. A part of him knew he was capable of everything he saw, but somehow he felt that this island wanted him to be that way.
There was not a waking moment on this island that he had not been terrified, confused, hurt, or lost. It was as if the island itself was tormenting him in ways he could not quite grasp. The woman, though he had thought her a figure of beauty and passion, was nothing more than another trick on his psyche that made him long for the edge of his dull career and average life back home.
The only ray of sunshine he had truly known on this island was Erin. She had vanished like a distant thought beyond an obscure cloud as if she was never there to begin with. Somehow he knew that where ever she was, or where she had gone, that she was either hurt or worse. He wanted to run off into the trees in a mad panic and scream out her name, but he knew that behind that blind thought of anger and emotion that he would get no further than if he was sulking in his own thoughts on the porch outside the farm house.
Erin…
The thought of her hurt made his stomach twist into knots and his nerves stand on end. There comes a point in any horrific situation when you struggle with the thoughts of giving up. Jacob’s mind played on that thought more in the past few hours since he had moved from the foyer to the wooden steps outside than he had in his whole life. He had a gun now, so ending his existence quickly would not be a problem. What was the point of going on?
His heart and soul were damaged by the trials of his own existence. He knew no point in continuing on other than to satisfy his selfish need to go back to his life and sell himself to the corporate world like so many others do on a daily basis. The small 8 foot by 8 foot cubicles that represent an existence all too familiar to many and that was what many refer to as their lives. Was there really any point to it all?
Somebody at the top was getting their pockets filled while the grunts below work their tails off to go home to a failing mortgage, failing marriage and teenagers that resent them for never being there. Somehow the workings of the modern world seemed more unfair than it truly should be. This was the life he was fighting for; the distant ray of sunshine atop a hill of jagged rocks and hidden land mines. Somehow everything that had happened to him since he had awoken on this island was only circumstances that further prodded at the thoughts of why he should even continue to care anymore.
Jacob felt tears well up in his eyes and without warning they began to run down his cheeks as he sat staring, lost in his own thoughts.
The sound of footsteps brought Jacob back to the reality he was so desperate to escape. They were not heavy footsteps, but smaller and moving quickly. Before he could turn around, he was tackled by the thing, sending him onto his back smiling. He had completely forgotten about the terrier they had found in the woods, just prior to the collapse of the lighthouse.
The small dog licked him uncontrollably.
“I’m glad to see you! I thought you were dead little guy. That fire was something else.” Jacob said, as he scratched the dog’s ears. The dog allowed him every bit of attention, panting happily as Jacob did so.
“JACOB!”
A voice cut through his good mood like a knife. It was a terrifying scream of pain and fear. It was Erin.
Jacob ran into the house, listening for any sounds to let him know where Erin was. His adrenaline pushed his mind to blankness and allowed his muscles and panic to set in at full speed. He ran up the stairs and onto the landing. The muffled moans came once more, but they were higher, somewhere above him.
He ran into the room, and through the opening in the wall he had made earlier that day.
The other door.
He still had the rifle wrapped around his shoulder and he took it in both hands and kicked the door to open. It didn’t bust off of the hinges like he would have assumed an old door would, but rather loosened and swung open. Darkness poured out from within, sucking up the light provided by the opening to the bedroom beyond. It was a small hallway that opened to a staircase that went up 5 steps to a small landing and then turned to continue to a room above. Jacob inched his way step by step, and he noticed that the small dog had followed him, and was staying close behind as he made his way up. The dog stopped at the landing and growled softly. Jacob regarding him and noticed the hair on his back was sticking straight up and its eyes were focused on the blackness above.
There was a railing that followed a half wall to the direct right of the staircase. The old wooden stairs creaked like they were barely able to hold Jacob’s weight as he inched slowly up into the darkness. The dog’s growl increased and Jacob pulled the pin back on the firing hammer on the old rifle. He aimed it forward, hoping that whatever was up there was no shy and out in the open. He was not the best shot in the world and his eyesight was not the best, especially in the extreme darkness.
The stale smell of moth balls and mildew erupted from the surroundings, made up of old furniture and miscellaneous other items. It was cold in the darkness, attributed to the darkness and dampness. Although he could only see a few feet in either direction with any sound clarity, Jacob dared not call out. He was sure that whatever was in here, aside from Erin, was alerted to him when he kicked the door open downstairs, but his voice held tight within his throat and would not allow any sound to escape aside from his own heavy breathing.
His heart pounded in his chest, both from the adrenaline rush that was quickly fading and from running up the stairs in such a quick manner. Jacob was not out of shape, but he had not been known to spend a lot of time at the gym.
He wiped the sweat beading up on his forward and stepped forward into the room. There were shadows in every corner and although they all appeared to move in unison with each step he took, he heard not a sound. It was deathly silent, which made Jacob that much more afraid. It was entirely possible something was waiting to jump out and rip him to shreds, so it was only a matter of him seeing the thing before it had the chance to spring the trap.
He knelt to the ground, and brought the gun up in front of him. He used it as a pointer, looking down the barrel as he moved it from side to side scanning the room for any signs of life. The storm outside was now raging, beating the panels on the roof with each push of wind. The mildew smell Jacob noticed was due to the many leaks from storms over time, as each drip was only followed by more and more drips from the ceiling above.
Jacob felt a tinge of panic as something breathed on the back of his neck. He didn’t move. He only sat there, waiting for the sheer moment when something ripped its claws across his neck.
“Jacob?” Erin’s soft voice said, under clinched teeth from pain and exhaustion.
Jacob turned in just enough time to catch Erin before she collapsed onto the floor of the attic. “Jacob, we have to go. Now…”
Her voice trailed off and he eyes closed. Jacob grabbed her and threw her on his shoulder as he ran for the stairs. He stopped dead in his tracks. There was a figure standing at the edge of the staircase, watching him. He slowly let Erin down to the floor and brought his gun up at the thing. It was smaller, much smaller than an adult human. It stood about 4 feet high, at most and as Jacob concentrated, he realized it was wearing a dress. Lightning flashed outside and from the holes in the roof above, the light came through, lighting up the whole of the attic in a quick and sudden blast of illumination.
Jacob’s heart stopped dead in his chest. The figure that lit up was the little girl from his vision. Her hair was matted with dirt and her pink dress was torn and ripped to shreds. Her eyes were fixed on Jacob and glowed with pure and utter evil. Even in the darkness Jacob could feel the glare permeating off of the little girl. Her face was covered in blood and bruises and her body was bloated with decay.
“What do you want from me?” Jacob called; his voice an audible squeal.
Her body twisted and bent in the darkness. It was not the movements of something with bones, but rather the twisted visage of something inhuman. It fell backwards onto its hands, walking now on all fours like an animal. It slowly but surely began inching its way towards Jacob. He could smell decay and blood permeating the air like saturated sponge. It fell heavy and made Jacob’s labored breathing even worse.
In the blind panic of what he had just witnessed, he had not realized that he had dropped the gun somewhere in the darkness of the attic floor. He felt around, using his hands to guide him along. Unable to find it, he decided to grab Erin and make his best attempt to run, though he knew not where he would go.
Erin’s body was not where he assumed he had left it, though in the darkness he wasn’t even sure where that truly was. The creature was closer now, only a few feet away when a familiar growl sounded from atop the stairs. The dog was eyeing the creature with menace.
Jacob’s eyes came back into focus, adjusting to the light slowly entering the room from the room downstairs. It wasn’t enough to see clearly, but when added to the sounds around, it was offering a general opaque nature to the atmosphere.
He watched as the creature stopped and turned. A scream, deadly and painful, erupted from the thing. Jacob’s hair stood on end, and goose-bumps at once appeared all across his body. The sound was utter and pure terror.
The dog backed up a step, but didn’t stop its deadly fixation on the demon, as it watched now in confusion at the dog. Jacob broke the sudden pulse of fear and finally saw where Erin lay, just inches from the creature’s legs. She was breathing, softly, though Jacob could hear her over the torment of his own beating heart.
He crawled forward, just enough to reach out to Erin.
The creature was unmoving, unafraid and angry.
The tattered dress of what was once a little girl swayed soundly in the wind that whistled through the holes of the ancient roof. The dog made a dashing run and leapt upon the thing, its tiny teeth gnashing out in fury as the creature spun itself around to prevent the nuisance of bites.
Jacob took this as his only chance and grabbed Erin and made a dash around the fighting pair and headed for the stairs leading into the room below. He had no idea where to go or what to do, or even whether or not the nightmare of a little girl upstairs was even real. Reality seemed to be bending and twisting into ways that made little to no sense to anyone this side of insanity.
Jacob ran through the smaller room and into the open bedroom. He continued out into the landing above the foyer and made his way down the stairs. He tripped, misjudging the distance to the bottom step and plunged down hard onto the floor. His mind was reeling to fight the urge to black out under the pain. Erin landed softer, but still roughly against the floor.
Her eyes sprung open and she looked around for a threat or warning. She saw Jacob trying to stand up, but uncontrollably shaking his head to prevent himself from losing consciousness. Her mind was a blank slate of confusion and terror and her body was less than stable enough to stand on her own. She could not remember why she was so afraid or what had even happened in the past day, but she knew where ever she was that something terrible had had her.
Another scream rippled through the ceiling, as it opened up in a spider web of cracks and broken plaster. Remains of old pictures fell from the walls and dust filled the air under the wind from the open door. Leaves and debris filled the open foyer with a naturalistic décor that seemed not so out of place in the ancient farmhouse.
Jacob finally gained control of the pain and noticed that just as before, his pain was subsiding at a rapid pace. The throbbing calmed and the twisted ankle he knew all too well was soothing in a way uncharacteristic to modern medicine.
He stood, found his way over to Erin and helped her up.
“Are you alright?” Jacob called, glancing both to Erin and up to the landing at the same time.
“I can’t walk, but I am alive. Can we please just get the hell out of here? I would rather fight with the raging tsunami than deal with the nightmares of this damn house.” Erin said in urgency.
Jacob only nodded and grabbed her up in his arms. He walked out the front door, careful to avoid it as it swung in the wind. As he made his way off of the porch he looked about to find somewhere they could go to avoid the sheets of uncontrollable rain that spilled over the island in torrential downpours. The barn looked to be the best option given the circumstances and Erin’s injuries and with as much speed as he could muster, ran from the porch, holding Erin in his arms, until they were both safe under the tin roof of the old barn across the way.
“I know his isn’t the Four Seasons, but we might have to make due until you can walk again. I will get to work starting a fire, and you keep an eye on that house for any signs of movement.”
“What happened to me? I don’t remember much from the past 24 hours.” Erin said quizzically.
“I will explain everything in time. I don’t think you have to worry about that right now. You are safe and to me, that is enough for now. I hope to keep it that way and not let you out of my sight ever again.”
Erin smiled, though Jacob could sense the resistance and doubt behind it. For some reason, that made him feel as though he would not be able to protect her. He had his own doubts and with everything that had happened, he was a little uncertain himself.
He stood and walked between the barn stalls, navigating through the old rotting wooden fencing and constant drips from the roof holes above. He pushed through a small door, which looked like a storage room and found lantern on the floor right at the opening. He grabbed it and after shaking it, could hear the remnants of oil within. He set it aside and moved further into the small room.
Inside there was a series of farm tools, all rotted and useless from time. There was a large item, covered by a greenish grey tarp in the center of the room. He approached it, hoping it was a car, but realizing how useless a car would be in the dense jungle outside.
He slowly grabbed a corner and began to lift the aging tarp. It fell apart in crumbles, almost like paper machete under the strain of time. Eventually he got a grip further up and in a quick motion brought the tarp from over the object beneath.
His heart raced. He grabbed the lantern and headed back to find Erin still staring at the house and seeing him running towards her, tried to stand up in alarm.
“No, please sit. You are not going to believe what I just found!”
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